1/2 Roel Stapper on the NAC field at Begraafpark Zuylen (photo: Erik Peeters).
Corner flags, stadium seats and a real center spot. At Begraafpark Zuylen in Breda, loyal NAC supporters have to say goodbye to their club even after their death. In a corner of the cemetery they can be buried on a symbolic football field in a yellow-black atmosphere. “There are more of this kind of final resting places, but you will not find this as complete here,” says Roel Stapper, director of the cemetery.
The NAC corner in the Begraafpark had been around for a while, but hardly appealed to the imagination. According to director Stapper because the inspiration was missing. According to him, that is also the reason that there was hardly any enthusiasm among supporters. “We initially worked out the idea too amateurish. The culture surrounding a club is very close to which details have to be right. We didn’t do that well.”
To give the initiative a new chance, the cemetery called in the help of the NAC Museum. On their advice, chairs from the stadium were placed along the line for family or friends of the deceased NAC fans. Around the field, grandstand photos evoke the atmosphere of five different periods in club history. The portrait of deceased club icon Hein van Poppel is on the corner flags.
“Everything is right, even the color yellow.”
A center spot with the current NAC logo completes the yellow-black feeling. “Now that we have tackled this together with NAC, it really starts to live. Everything is right, even the color yellow,” Stapper explains. He expects that due to the radical facelift, more NAC supporters will opt for the special final resting place.
Chairman Ad van den Bemt, chairman of the Supporters Association and board member NAC Museum is cautiously positive: “It is of course a commercial thing, but I think it is beautiful. For NAC supporters it is nice that such a place is created. I think I want to be put together.”
“You can of course enter the field, but preferably without a football.”
The axis of the NAC supporters can be buried in one of the six columns on the field. In each column there is room for three urns. The ash may not be scattered on the field. Roel Stapper: “You can of course enter the field, but preferably without a football.”
Maarten Akkermans is an avid NAC fan and secretary of ‘Samen voor NAC’. “NAC is deep in Breda society and I think a special field in the cemetery is therefore appropriate. I don’t necessarily have to lie there myself, but I understand the need for people.”
The honorary field for NAC supporters will be officially reopened on Tuesday. For this purpose, the monument is moved to Hein van Poppel in the presence of his family from the Rat Verlegh Stadium to a permanent place in the cemetery.
